Friday, December 16, 2011

“I believe this nation should commit itself, to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing poor inner city children on the moon, so that they can mine minerals, and return those minerals safely to the earth.”

Heh. Justin Bieber can play the Sean Connery role in the remake of Outland.

Neoconservatives are livid over President Obama’s declaration that the Iraq War is over, fearing that its disastrous outcome will undercut plans for a new war with Iran. But Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich says, if elected, he stands ready to join Israel in invading Iran,

I don't think we have to worry about Neut, but we have to watch the fucking neocons like a hawk.

But the Iraq debacle, now given a stamp of finality by Obama’s removal of the last U.S. combat troops, threatens to solidify among many Americans a recognition that they were “had” by the neocons, that the Iraq War was a terrible mistake that shouldn’t be repeated again.

So, the neocons must move quickly to change that perception, by asserting that the war had actually been “won” by Bush but that Obama “lost” it. That way, Americans won’t close the door on the next neocon adventure, a war with Iran.

We can only hope our press learned their lesson from the terrible way they mishandled themselves in the run-up to Iraq and will counter neocon lies with facts, maybe even some truth this time. They say they have, but...

We owe some terrible bills to the world for blundering around like a blind ape with a bazooka in the most volatile section of the planet. We owe them to the world for sneering at the French and laughing at the Canadians when they wouldn't follow us into the quagmire just because we said they should. We owe them to the world for our belief in our invincibility. If we'd armor-plated our Humvees as thickly as our politicians armor-plated their self-righteousness, a lot of soldiers would still be alive. We owe them to the world for re-electing C-Plus Augustus and his soulless vice-president in the middle of what we already knew was a hubristic bungle of historic proportions.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Kreis pleaded guilty to fraud in August after lying to Veterans Administration officials to get pension money. He had served in the Navy for nine months during the Vietnam War, but was discharged early “based upon a determination that he was not suited for military service.”...

The Feds didn’t find a connection to Al Qaeda, but they soon discovered that though Kreis had qualified for a need-based “improved pension” for his military service, he did not report over $33,000 in income he made in 2005, and made false statements to the Veterans Administration that he had made no outside income that year.

Nine months in the Navy and a General Discharge and he gets a fucking PENSION? What the fuck is going on here?

"So I apologize for this war. Yes, I have blood on my hands from my own violence against the world. But not this anymore. We're exiting Iraq because we never should have been there in the first place. I apologize for this war that was forced on you by George W. Bush and his advisers. The only proper punishment would be to have them all on stage here, all of 'em, Bush, Cheney, Condi, Colin Powell, Rumsfeld, Doug Feith, everyone who ever lied to you about WMDs and Saddam Hussein's connection to 9/11, everyone who worked to frighten the American public into a savage froth, each and every one of these cunts, Tony Blair, all the leaders in the coerced coalition of the willing, all of the war profiteers who made millions of dollars.

"And then we'd make them drop their pants. And we'd let all of you line up to fuck them in the ass. The women soldiers can use strap-ons or their fists. That's right: fuck them until they collapse. Fuck them until they can't breathe. Fuck the mechanical heart right out of Cheney's despicable mouth. Fuck them for everyone who died, for everyone who's fucked up, for everyone who can't sleep without having nightmares. Fuck them for the Jessica Lynch lie and for Pat Tillman. Fuck them with a spider hole and Saddam's statue and a 'Mission Accomplished' banner and yellow cake uranium. Fuck them with IEDs and Abu Ghraib leashes. Fuck them for Halliburton and Blackwater. Fuck them in Fallujah and Mosul and Baghdad. Fuck them with shock. Fuck them with awe. And when they're done being fucked and their asses are ripped up and they're on the ground, contemplating what just happened to them, we'll dump vats of blood on them, the blood of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who were killed because of the madness inflicted on two nations, on the world. And then we'll give 'em to the Hague.

Too close to the truth for any politician to say out loud.

Update:

Fixer and I posted these within 5 minutes of one another. That's never happened before in 7+ years and 18,000+ posts.

I'm stealing this from the Rude One in toto because this is exactly how I feel about this horrible war that's finally over:

[President Obama gave a speech at Fort Bragg yesterday to declare the end of the 8.75 year war in Iraq. It was measured and vague. Here's what he should have said:

"More than 1.5 million Americans have served in Iraq. 1.5 million. Over 30,000 Americans have been wounded, and those are only the wounds that show. Nearly 4,500 Americans made the ultimate sacrifice. To all of them, to all of you, and to your families, I just want to say, 'We're sorry.' I mean, holy shit are we sorry. We can't say how sorry we are. I could have a couple of hundred thousand prostitutes ready to fuck each and every one of you, and that wouldn't scratch the surface of how sorry we are. By the way, we do not have those prostitutes because John Boehner refused to fund them.

"I look out there on all of your tired, confused, if relieved faces. Some of you have fond memories of building schools or playgrounds, of happy Iraqi children smiling at you, of people thanking you for ridding the nation of Saddam Hussein. But you're all wondering, 'What the fuck was that for?' And, to be honest, I cannot tell you. I can tell you that it was all a colossal clusterfuck and a waste of time and lives and money, for several reasons.

"First, within the next few years, Iraq is going to descend into chaos, and there is not a goddamned thing we can do about it unless we want to overthrow the government and install someone who is totally our puppet and stay there in large numbers forever. But, c'mon, if these fuckers wanna kill each other, it's gonna happen, whether it's Shi'ites from Iran or Sunnis from Syria making the violence roll. People gotta start this shit from within. That's what we learned this year in places like Tunisia and Libya. And it could still end up with fucking chaos.

"Second, you're returning to an America that this war, among other things, has serious fucked up. You're not gonna get jobs. You're not gonna get the help you need. If you're on unemployment, we can't even guarantee that that'll last. Sure, sure, I can say that we passed the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, so that you and your families can get the education that allows you to live out your dreams. That includes a national effort to put our veterans to work. We’ve worked with Congress to pass a tax credit so that companies have the incentive to hire vets. And Michelle has worked with the private sector to get commitments to create 100,000 jobs for those who’ve served. But, c'mon. We've fucked ourselves with our own dicks. And when push comes to shove, you know those Republican cocksuckers in Congress will cut your benefits so that Johnny Billionaire can afford more cocaine and bigger tits for his wife and daughter.

"Now, I wanna be honest with you. I wanted to leave about 3000 of you there, along with the thousands of mercenaries we've hired, to keep the peace and so that these fuckers back here in DC wouldn't say that I'm wimping out or that I failed. Yeah, I'm talkin' to you, John McCain. Shut your whore mouth, or you'll see the backside of my pimp hand. It's sad but true that the filthy game of politics infected this sore. The RNC probably already has an ad online about what a pussy I am, even if we are leaving an embassy and 15,000 Americans, including a couple of hundred soldiers.

"Some of you may be wondering why we're not declaring 'Victory' today. That's because there hasn't been victory. There was never gonna be a victory because there was never a real goal. There has only been shame brought upon the nation and death and destruction brought to the Iraqis. Oh, and purple ink for voting. There was that. When he started the war, President Bush said, clearly, 'Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly, yet our purpose is sure. The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.' That was a miserable lie made by a motherfucker who was trying to act tough. This war was the indulgence of a United States that the previous administration wrecked.

"So I apologize for this war. Yes, I have blood on my hands from my own violence against the world. But not this anymore. We're exiting Iraq because we never should have been there in the first place. I apologize for this war that was forced on you by George W. Bush and his advisers. The only proper punishment would be to have them all on stage here, all of 'em, Bush, Cheney, Condi, Colin Powell, Rumsfeld, Doug Feith, everyone who ever lied to you about WMDs and Saddam Hussein's connection to 9/11, everyone who worked to frighten the American public into a savage froth, each and every one of these cunts, Tony Blair, all the leaders in the coerced coalition of the willing, all of the war profiteers who made millions of dollars.

"And then we'd make them drop their pants. And we'd let all of you line up to fuck them in the ass. The women soldiers can use strap-ons or their fists. That's right: fuck them until they collapse. Fuck them until they can't breathe. Fuck the mechanical heart right out of Cheney's despicable mouth. Fuck them for everyone who died, for everyone who's fucked up, for everyone who can't sleep without having nightmares. Fuck them for the Jessica Lynch lie and for Pat Tillman. Fuck them with a spider hole and Saddam's statue and a 'Mission Accomplished' banner and yellow cake uranium. Fuck them with IEDs and Abu Ghraib leashes. Fuck them for Halliburton and Blackwater. Fuck them in Fallujah and Mosul and Baghdad. Fuck them with shock. Fuck them with awe. And when they're done being fucked and their asses are ripped up and they're on the ground, contemplating what just happened to them, we'll dump vats of blood on them, the blood of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who were killed because of the madness inflicted on two nations, on the world. And then we'll give 'em to the Hague.

"That's what we should do. But we won't. Because that'd be divisive. And Lord knows I wouldn't want to be divisive."]

Reading this, I'm brought back to the last M*A*S*H episode, when they're all in the OR with Armed Forces Radio on, and the costs of the Korean War are broadcast:

...

But when weighing those possible benefits against the costs of the Iraq intervention, there is simply no conceivable calculus by which Operation Iraqi Freedom can be judged to have been a successful or worthwhile policy. The war was intended to show the extent of America’s power. It succeeded only in showing its limits.

Allow me to say this in my puny defence, however. One reason I’m such a wayward prognosticator of rightwing trends is that I’m incapable of blacking out enough neural sectors to see the world through reptilian-brained eyes, a prerequisite for any true channeling of the mean resentments and implanted fears that drive hardcore conservatives ...

At this point, I go under the assumption that nothing is too far out of bounds for any of the GOP, especially Neut.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Shopping day today (No Xmas shopping. Ours consisted of a gift certificate at a tattoo parlor for Mrs. G's niece and a check to her nephew so he can buy stuff for us to give to his kids. Easy.) so I'll leave ya with Wednesday's Child Morford riffing on Heavy Metal:

What are you into, citizen? Goth fisting indie horticulture beer making? Hipster artisan pho served in tiny German bird skulls? Foreign films featuring knitting and very large trucks? Finnish speed guitar gods with umlauts where their names used to be? Here is a link. Here is a community. Here is a person who would like to perhaps share in your fetish/interest/kink/genre from afar. Be alone no more. Or rather, be even more alone, but share your crushing aloneness with others just like you. Yay technology!

One'a you youngbloods translate the column for me, please. I didn't understand a word of it. Thank you, Jesus.

They're both nuts. They're just different flavors of nuts. For Paul, there's one guiding principle: "Don't spend any fucking money." That's why he opposes wars. That's why he opposes almost everything, including programs to get teenagers off drugs. For Newt, it's all about centering as much power as possible in himself because he is so right in his rightness. It's a shit fight in a monkey house. And all you can do is watch the feces fly.

Click to embiggen.

In the most pronounced contrast between former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s position within the Republican primary contest and his standing in a matchup against President Obama, Gingrich has taken a commanding lead in a new national poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal. Newt gets 40 percent of the GOP vote nationally, the highest total for any candidate in the past few months. He’s currently 17 points above his main competitor, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney.

But the data also shows that Gingrich is a much weaker candidate against President Obama nationally. While Romney is only bested by the President by two points within the poll, Gingrich is crushed 51 - 40, showing the expansive disconnect between the GOP voters’ desire to have a non-Romney candidate and the chances that candidate has in the general election. [my em]

George Will: "There is almost artistic vulgarity in Gingrich's unrepented role as a hired larynx for interests profiting from such government follies as ethanol and cheap mortgages."

David Brooks: "[Newt] has every negative character trait that conservatives associate with '60s excess: narcissism, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and intemperance. He just has those traits in Republican form."

Now it's about Iran as well. Iran is right next door, 20 miles from where this video was taken. 20 miles. Who the hell do we think is gonna win this one? The neocons are shouting "On to Tehran!" with their dicks in each other's hands. They must not prevail this time.

In the first segment, Koppel asked the U.S. Ambassador if he could recall any other embassies in his career that were as big as the one in Baghdad. His answer?

Offering a candidate money to stand down is one of the tools used to suppress opposition activity in banana republics. If the offer made by Michael Savage isn't against the law, it certainly should be ...

For the Conservatives -- both Apostate and Brahman -- who are now wailing and gnashing their teeth over the possibility of Newt Fucking Gingrich being the standard bearer for the GOP next year, what is there left to say but...

....we told you so.

Holy Mother of God did we ever tell you so.

Over and over again. Begged you to listen. Begged you to stop and consider what long-term horrors you were visiting on this country in exchange having your bigot G-spot stroked.

And you told us to fuck off.

...

And now we get to sit back with our popcorn and watch with bemusement and laughter.

Monday, December 12, 2011

So it was that the Republican candidates who are deemed worthy of attention (which somehow includes Rick Santorum but not John Huntsman or Buddy Roemer, both former governors) held another goddamn debate in goddamn Iowa last night. Goddamn Iowa, we might note, is one of the whitest goddamn states in America, which means it tells us approximately nothing about how nominations or elections are going to go, but its caucus is still honored like some bloated, louche lord of the manor who must be fed peeled grapes by the nude boy children of his subjects.

Other horrors in this spectacle of the decline and fall of the Republican party:

1. Benjamin Netanyahu is the greatest living American. And Israel is the most important state in the union. It's the location that got mentioned more than any other (besides the United States), and Romney and Gingrich got into a fight over who's got the longest Bibi: "I've known Bibi since 1984," said Newt. Countered Mitt, "I've also known Bibi Netanyahu for a long time. We worked together at Boston Consulting Group," which was in 1976, so Romney's balling Bibi for nearly a decade longer than Newt....

Oh, hell. What else do you want to talk about here? Bottom line: Santorum's a creepy idiot who has family values shoved up his ass like spiked beads. Ron Paul is Ron Paul is Ron Paul (even if he seemed like Don Knotts running for president in a kooky movie with a chimp as his running mate). Most frightening, Michele Bachmann actually came across as saner and more in control because, compared with the flailing Romney and the failing Perry, she was (or maybe it was just fun to see her go after Romney and Gingrich).

I think Crazy Eyes got off a great zinger with the "Neut Romney" line. Heh.

Republicans have lost this election before it started. All that matters now is seeing how long Mitt Romney goes before the barely contained rage inside him bursts out. And how long until someone actually listens to exactly what the hell Newt Gingrich believes.

Frankly, President Obama should just ignore these fools and merely campaign on giving him a Congress that wants to accomplish something.

'Alternative TO knowledge' is more like it. I don't like Frum very well for obvious reasons, but I fully understand his reasoning: F**Noise is on Neutie's side and he's not, and the bickering is going to blessedly kill the Repugs' chances of taking over.

Imagine the fun when the battle for the soul of the Repuglican't party between the 'money', or 'establishment', end and the 'base', or 'batcrap crazy', end is won and the victor finds he has won something that doesn't exist. Soul? What soul?

In an article published by New York Magazine in late November, Frum had argued that conservative media like Fox News and talk radio “immerse their audience in a total environment of pseudo-facts and pretend information.”...

“The question is what is the impact on the viewer?” he continued. “And we know, for example, that people that watch a lot of Fox come away knowing a lot less about important world events. That’s a correlation that we know.”

Recent polling appears to back up Frum’s assertion.

Fairleigh Dickinson University found last month that “some outlets, especially Fox News, lead people to be even less informed than those who say they don’t watch any news at all.”

U.S. Criticizes Mexico for Torturing Jailed AmericanThey could have at least flown him to another country.

Congress Considers Cameras in Supreme CourtThey'd be hidden, out of sight, and the justices wouldn't be told about them.

I doubt if this will work. I think Congress wants to see if SCOTUS is getting more money from special interests than they are. Scalia and Thomas have great respect for the law and the court and accept their payoffs elsewhere.

La Dia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe commemorates the day in 1531 when Juan Diego saw a vision of a young lady surrounded by light near Mexico City, apparently after a nice comida of mushrooms he had found, and gave Mexico its most popular religious image and tattoo. One stoned indio kid changed Mexico and the Americas forever.

Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos and the Chieftains: Ireland meets Mexico. A wonderful ranchera that will put you in a dancing mood.

WAYNESBURG, Pa. – Through the hilly fields here in southwestern Pennsylvania, crews worked for months this year, cutting a trench through woods and past farms for a new natural gas pipeline.

Like many other lines crisscrossing the state’s Marcellus Shale regions, this pipe was big – a high-pressure steel line, 20 inches in diameter, large enough to help move a buried ocean of natural gas out of this corner of the state. It was also plenty big enough to set off a sizable explosion if something went wrong.

Who makes Karl Rove and the GOP soil themselves in fear is great in my book. That's why I support Elizabeth Warren in whatever office she feels like running for.

Why are they ready and willing to spend $Millions on attack ads a year out from the election? Because they know that Ms. Warren will pound Scott Brown like a tent peg if the voters know who she really is.

Click to embiggen.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Every once in a while Turner Classic Movies sneaks in a good flick in the middle of the night. I was lucky to catch the 1946 Till The End Of Time (fair synopsis, but skimmed over the point I'm trying to make) last night. I never heard of the flick before, but I'm glad I saw it.

It's about three Jarheads who muster out after WWII and their problems with adjustment to civilian life. Here's the setup clip. More clips here.

I couldn't find a clip of the part that really got my attention so I'll try to describe it. After a buncha trials and tribulations, girl trouble, etc., the next-to-last scene brings it all together. The three Marines are drinking in a saloon and trying to come to answers. At one point they play pinball with a black GI. Some shady looking characters approach them offering membership in a Veterans' group called the "America War Patriots" which was unknowingly prescient of today. One of the bennies of membership is $200 a month "without those foreign commie unions".

Uh-oh...

Then the Marines are told of certain "restrictions" of eligibility to join - "No Catholics, Jews, or Negroes". Perhaps not exactly the point of WWII...

Mitchum's character says, and I must paraphrase, "A buddy of ours, Maxie Klein, would spit right in your face for saying that. He's dead on Guadalcanal, so I'll do it", and he does and the fight is on. Great bar fight scene. The bigots get well and truly thrashed, as they should in a perfect world, and the movie goes on to a pretty happy ending with hope for the future. No way this flick was trying to predict anything other than a possible good future for WWII GIs, which mostly they went on to have, I think.

My point is they had right-wing racist assholes then and we've still got them now. That old flick caught it and we're still dealing with it.

I'm going to try and get a DVD or VHS of the movie and get that scene for you. Seeing those assholes get what I wish I could give them will warm the cockles of your heart.

Gordon

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"... That's US here at the Brain! Sittin' all alone out in the cold, thanklessly freezin' our beboops off, lookin' for a chance to lob a few at the enemy and praying for a secondary explosion, wonderin' if it's all worth it or if it will make any difference in the scheme of things ..." - Gordon